Probably, Maybe Why It Works
I remember years ago, when I was talking to my ex-girlfriend that was the relationship before my last ex-girlfriend. So it was a while ago, I told her that I wanted to master intermittent fasting. However, years later I am still constantly discovering more and more. Albert Einstein says, “If you cannot explain something simply, then you do not know it well enough.” I am working on being able to understand fasting more so I can explain it more simply to others. The science is definitely out there, but what always is a challenge to me is that there are so many things going on at work.
Around the time when I told my ex-girlfriend that I wanted to master fasting, I had just finished reading a book called “The Obesity Code”. That was a book by Dr. Jason Fung and he detailed how America brought on the obesity epidemic. Towards the end of the book when he was done giving the reasoning behind why we gain weight, his main tool to fight weight gain was intermittent fasting and spacing out your meals. The reason why is because insulin and throughout this book he explained why losing weight is more hormonal than caloric.
In almost every book about fasting that I have read, insulin plays a huge role in weight gain but also weight loss.
When we look at diabetics, we can quickly see how insulin impacts our bodies. Type-II Diabetes comes later on in life and typically when someone has excess bodyfat. Their bodies become insulin-resistant. However, Type-I Diabetes is when the body produces too little or no insulin so they need insulin injections. I love this definition by Dr. Fung:
“Type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune disease that destroys the insulin-producing beta cells of the pancreas. Insulin falls to extremely low levels. Blood sugar increases, butt he hallmark of this condition is severe weight loss.”
Dr. Fung a description of Diabetes from Aretaeus of Cappadocia, who was a Greek physician: “Diabetes is ... a melting down of flesh and limbs into urine.” Because when people got diabetes they would lose so much weight until it was “almost universally fatal”. Apparently there is also a disorder called “diabulimia” where a patient wants to lose weight so they start under-dosing their insulin so they can lose weight quickly and efficiently. The only problem is that it is very dangerous because they start peeing out their flesh and limbs. Ok, just kidding that does not actually happen but it is very dangerous. Insulin has profound impacts on the human body.
Just wanted to leave a few fascinating studies on insulin’s effects on the weight that can be found in “The Obesity Code”.
1)A 2007 compared three different insulin protocols. There was a basal insulin group, which received the lowest average insulin dose. Prandial insulin group, which received the most insulin. The intermediate group was right in the middle. All insulin protocol groups gained weight, however the lowest insulin dose gained an average of 4.2 pounds (1.9 kilograms). The highest insulin dosage group gained the most weight, 12.5 pounds (5.7 kilograms) on average. The intermediate group was in the middle gaining 10.3 pounds (4.7 kilograms).
Holman RR eat al. Addition of biphasic, prandial, or basal insulin to oral therapy in type 2 diabetes. N Engl J Med. 2007 Oct 25; 357(17):1716-30
2)1993 Study, high-dose insulin allowed virtual normalization of blood sugars in a group of type 2 diabetic patients. The dose started at 0, but was increased by 100 units per day over a period of six months. The patients also decreased their caloric intake over time by more than 300 calories per day. “The patients’ blood sugar levels were great. But what happened to their weight? It increased by an average of 19 pounds (8.7 kilograms),” Fung wrote. “It wasn’t calories that drove their weight gain. It was insulin.
Henry RR, Gumbiner B, Ditzler T, Wallace P, Lyon R, Glauber HS. Intensive conventional insulin therapy for type ii diabetes. Diabetes Care. 1993 Jan; 16(1):23-31.
Maybe you are reading this and are starting to believe that insulin is your enemy, but the sad part is that insulin is not trying to be a bad guy. Insulin is a very important hormone that we all need in our body, hence why type 1 diabetics would die without it.
I think authors Michael Mosley and Mimi Spencer detailed insulin clearly and concisely in a book called, “The Fast Diet: Lose Weight, Stay Healthy, and Live Longer with the Simple Secret of Intermittent Fasting”.
“When we eat food, particularly foods rich in carbohydrates, our blood glucose levels rise and the pancreas, an organ tucked away below the ribs next to the left kidney, starts to churn out insulin. Glucose is the main fuel that our cells use for energy, but high levels of glucose circulating in the blood are toxic to your cells. The job of insulin, a hormone, is to regulate blood glucose levels, ensuring that they are neither too high nor too low.”
“Insulin is a sugar controller; it aids the extraction of glucose from blood and then stores it in places like your liver or muscles in a stable form called glycogen, to be used when and if it is needed . What is less commonly known is that insulin is also a fat controller. It inhibits something called lipolysis, the breakdown of stored body fat. At the same time, it forces fat cells to take up and store fat from your blood. Insulin makes you fat. High levels lead to increased fat storage, low levels to fat depletion.”
So insulin is important because it can monitor our blood glucose levels to balance them, however it also stops you from breaking down your stored body fat. On top of that, it will also force your fat cells to store fat.
The snacks you are eating are more dangerous than you think. I have not had a protein bar in years. They are essentially glorified candy bars. Many of us eat snacks all throughout the day (damn you tech culture with your unlimited snacks) and even though you may choose “the healthy option” your body is still released a hormonal response. Ok so that means no more nature valley bars and fruit snacks either. Yes, you are taking in calories that are not super necessary, but the hormonal influence is what actually makes a difference.
Every time you eat something your body will release insulin and some foods release more than others. If you want more specific numbers you can find them when you look up the glycemic index. Typically, foods that are higher in sugar release a little bit more insulin when you eat them. But I will say that I am more a white rice and white bread type of person instead of their darker counterparts. Brown rice, I feel is hard for your body to digest, which could lead to more bloating. The way we use wheat in the United States is not a natural form of wheat too, so I typically opt for a sourdough or white bread option. What is key here, however, is that every time you eat your body will be releasing different levels of insulin. Knowing that your body is releasing insulin every time you at is important because of your bodies ability to adapt, which can sometimes become a detriment.
Unfortunately for me, I am one of those dudes with crazy bad allergies. In San Francisco, they have not been as bad but when I was growing up in Sacramento there would be times when I would have these bursts where I could not stop sneezing and I would constantly be crying like I had cut up a handful of onions (or watched an episode of “This is Us”. I think there are far less trees in San Francisco and we have the sea breeze here so I have not been affected as much, but on top of those environmental factors I have also been spending way too much money on allergy medicine. Every time I pay for my allergy medicine at the counter, I get upset at those big Pharma companies that are monopolizing drugs that can be essential. Damn you Claritin and Zyrtec. I would love to pay less than $60 to not sneeze all over, but in the times of Covid-19 I know how important it is to not get your snot all over the place. I am doing it for the people around me! Thanks for reading my rant on allergy medicine.
Recently, I noticed that I have been having to increase my dosage of allergy medicine because I started to feel symptoms again. My body was getting used to the medicine that I was intaking. Unfortunately, your body can build a resistance and the sensitivity to medicine can decrease. Same with our sensitivity to insulin. When you are constantly eating throughout the day, even small snacks that are marketed to be healthy your insulin sensitivity decreases. So your body needs to release more insulin in order to to get the same response as you did before. Which, as noted earlier is correlated with gaining body fat since insulin is a fat controller and inhibits the breakdown of stored fat.
Ok, that sucks because snacks are awesome and carbs taste great right? Well, if you want to have less insulin in your body, you need to be able to increase your body’s insulin sensitivity so it will need less insulin to get the same response. Probably the best way to do that is, you guessed it, fasting. Intermittent fasting can help you increase your insulin sensitivity because you are spacing out your meals more so your body is not constantly getting a release of insulin.
Say you got someone flowers on a special occasion, then it would be sweet and beautiful. But what if you got those flowers every single day a few times a day, it would not be as special. You would kind of be desensitized to those flowers (maybe a little annoyed too). Spacing out your meals allows your body to be more positively impacted when you actually do have food. Emotionally, I hope you love your food even just a little bit more.
In “The Fast Diet”, there was a really interesting study cited. Researchers from the Intermountain Heart Institute in Utah reported that after 10-12 hours without food, the body starts looking for new energy sources. The body starts burning fat through lipolysis, however it also starts drawing LDL cholesterol from the cells and potentially using it as fuel. Dr. Benjamin Horne, the director of the Institute, noted that fat cells are a major contributor to insulin resistance too and breaking down the fat cells may reduce the risk of diabetes developing.
The fastest I have ever seen my clients lose weight is not necessarily through calorie restriction and more movement, but actually through fasting, sleep, and stress reduction. Fasting allows the body to burn fat storage as energy because it needs another source for energy after about 10-12 hours of fasting. Also, fasting may lower LDL cholesterol because the breakdown of LDL is potentially used by the body as fuel too. Sure, it can be uncomfortable but you have a high chance to start burning more of the fat that you are constantly storing up and you will also make it easier for you to lose more fat in the future due to your insulin sensitivity increasing. Your body will need to release less insulin than it did previously. The weight loss may not always be fast, but I do believe that fasting does promote weight loss in many different ways. Outside of weight loss there are powerful benefits. So what do you have to lose?
